


Nature

by RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR



Series: Alphabet [14]
Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24115990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR/pseuds/RiTheBiGuy_RileyTMR
Summary: Claire and Neil go on holiday to get away from work, but it doesn't go to plan when a teenager falls out of a tree.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Series: Alphabet [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1718374
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Nature

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry about how long it took me to do this, I have been struggling this week, I have depression and lockdown got to me a bit, but I've been feeling a bit better today so thought I'd update this series.
> 
> Thank you for all the comments on the last fic, I picked Nature for this one which was suggested by TLoo93
> 
> Don't forget to leave a suggestion for O!

"You know, I never took you as a cabin in the woods sort of guy," Claire said to Neil as they were driving to the Smoky mountains where they had booked to spend a week in a log cabin.

"I'm full of surprises," Neil replied, "I love nature, Gabi and I would always be out playing in the trees by our house when we were kids," he smiled at the memory, "we used to go on holiday every year before Gabi's accident, my favourite one was staying in a cabin by a lake, we went swimming and climbed and went on hikes, it was great."

"They does sound good," Claire said, "I've never been on holiday before," Neil looked at her in surprise.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, my mother wasn't the sort of woman to take me with her when she went on her trips and once I became an adult I was too busy with my career," she replied.

"Well, I shall make sure we go away as often as possible," Neil said, holding her hand and giving it a squeeze, "looks like we're nearly here," he said as he saw the driveway leading up to the cabin.

They got out of the car and looked around the area that they were going to spend the next week. The cabin was small but in a warm comfortable way,the surrounding area was filled with trees except for the lake around the back that a small porch was looking over. They walked through the door and were met with a beautiful kitchen/living room which had a stunning view of the lake and the mountains that could be seen in the distance.

"This is amazing!" Claire exclaimed, Neil stood next to her and put his arm around her waist.

"Not as amazing as you," he replied, kissing her neck. She giggled and turned to face him.

"We've only just got here and you're already trying to seduce me," she said, kissing him softly.

"I can't help it," he shrugged. She rolled her eyes before stepping away from him.

"Let's go see the rest of the place," she held her hand out to him and he took it, following her as she led him around. There wasn't a lot for them to look at, only a laundry room, the bathroom and the bedroom. The laundry room was small and only had a washer and dryer in. The bathroom was bigger and had a fairly large bathtub in it.

"I could see us having some fun in that," Neil commented when he saw the tub, Claire shook her head but had a smirk on her face. The last room was the bedroom which had a king sized bed taking up most of the space. Neil walked over to it and flopped down on it, "it is definitely comfy," he said as he spread his arms and legs out. Claire walked round to the other side of the bed and laid next to him.

"it is," she agreed, Neil leaned up on his elbow and looked down at her.

"I say we should test out how much the springs can put up with," he said to her with a wink.

"Is that so?" she asked leaning up to kiss him, Neil put one of his arms on the other side of her body until he was over her and Claire wrapped her arms around him pulling him in closer as they deepened the kiss which eventually led to more.

A couple of hours later, Claire was in the bathroom after they decided to have round two in the shower. She was stood in front of the mirror in her underwear, looking at the scar across her abdomen and tracing it with her finger. She wasn't sure how she felt about it yet, she didn't like the memory of how she got it, it reminded her of the patient that had been lost causing the shooter to target her, it also reminded her of the nurse that was lost that day. But mostly it reminded her that she was alive and she was grateful for that. She didn't notice that Neil had entered the room until he wrapped his arms around her waist, his bare chest against her back. He rested his head on her shoulder, looking at her in the mirror before he spoke.

"That's looking good considering it only happened a month ago," he said, moving his hand to trace the scar.

"I know," she replied, "I just don't know whether it goes with my skin tone," she joked, he laughed at her comment and she smiled back at him in the mirror.

"Well if it makes you feel any better I think it makes you look badass," he said. Claire let out a chuckle at this before turning around in his arms and putting hers around his neck, "what do you say we get dressed and I make dinner?" Neil asked, "we can eat it on the porch and watch the sunset," Claire thought about this for a minute.

"Since when did you get so soppy and romantic?" she asked and he laughed.

"Since you said you hated romantics and I wanted to prove you wrong," he said with a smile. 

"Well, Dr romantic, you should get started on cooking if you want to prove me wrong," Claire retorted, moving out of his embrace and stepping past him, she slapped his ass as she went and made sure to wiggle hers a bit as she walked away, knowing that he was watching. Neil smirked to himself before putting on his shirt and heading to the kitchen.

They spent the rest of the evening on the porch enjoying the view as the sky turned from blue, to oranges and pinks and soon purple and black. They looked in awe at the reflection of the stars and the moon on the surface of the lake relishing in its beauty as they made their way through a bottle of wine. Eventually they decided to call it a night and headed to bed.

The next day they made the decision to go on a hike through the forest. It was a warm day, the trees casting a much needed shade over the two surgeons. They walked hand in hand admiring the wildlife, Claire laughing when a bird flew out of a tree and scared her boyfriend and Neil smiling softly when his girlfriend's eyes lit up at the sight of a baby squirrel following it's mother as they ran past them

"It's nice, being here, away from everything all the sickness and injuries and death," Claire said, "I love my job but it does take a toll sometimes."

"That it does," Neil replied, "but it's also rewarding, when you get to tell a parent that you just saved their child's life, or telling a woman that her husband will be alright. Sometimes you've just got to focus on those people to stop yourself going crazy about the patients you couldn't save," Claire nodded at this before leaning her head on Neil's shoulder, "but you're right, it is nice to be away from it all," Claire was about to reply when they heard a scream.

"Look's like we may have spoken to soon," she said, as she heard voices shouting for help. They ran over to where the voices were coming from and saw a teenage boy laying on the floor unconscious and a group of teens around him. Neil crouched next to him and checked his pulse.

"Pulse is weak, and his breathing's shallow," he said, feeling down the boy's body, "possible broken ribs," Claire got the torch on her phone and checked his eyes.

"pupils are responsive," she told Neil, "one of you call an ambulance," she shouted to the group.

"I don't have any signal here," one of the older boys replied, "but there's a village about a mile west, I'll run there and see if someone can help."

"Alright, but be quick, he may be bleeding internally by the look of this bruise," Neil said as he noticed the mark below his ribs. The boy nodded and ran off.

"I'll go with him," a young girl said and followed him through the trees.

"Can't we pick him up and carry him to my car? We'd get him to the hospital quicker," one of the girls asked.

"We don't know the extent of his injuries, he could have broken his neck or damaged his spine, if we moved him now then he could die," Claire replied, "so what happened? I'm guessing he fell out of this tree," she asked.

"Yeah, we were having a competition to see who could get the highest, he got about two thirds of the way up when he fell," one of the guys said.

"Are you serious? that tree's like 50 feet," Claire said, "why would you guys think climbing that high was a good idea?" 

"None of us made it that far, but Jake's fearless," the same guy said.

"Well, Jake's fearlessness might kill him," Neil replied. The group of teenagers looked around at each other, terrified that their friend may die.

Half an hour later, they were all sat around waiting for the ambulance. Neil was keeping an eye on Jake whilst Claire was comforting a couple of the girls who were crying hard. The oldest boy, who they found out was called Charlie had spent most of the time pacing back and forth.

"Jesus Christ Charlie! Can you please just sit down?" another boy, Declan, complained.

"How can I sit down, our friend is dying and we're not doing anything to help him!" he shouted back.

"There's not much more that we can do right now, if we move him then we could kill or paralyse him," Neil responded.

"And how do we know that these two are actually doctors?" Charlie asked.

"Please, go ahead and tell me then what we should me doing, since apparently you have a medical license," Neil retorted, Charlie opened his mouth to reply when Jake started to stir.

"Wha- what happened," Jake coughed out. Neil hurried over to him, holding his head still so he couldn't move it and potentially damage his neck.

"Jake, my name's Dr Melendez, you fell out of a tree and have hurt yourself pretty badly. Now I need you to stay still until we figure out exactly how bad your injuries are," Claire came over and spoke to the young man.

"Hi Jake, I'm Dr Browne, I need you to tell me if you can feel this," she said as she felt down him arms and then his legs.

"Yeah, I can feel that," he replied.

"That's good," Neil replied, "it means you're not paralysed," Jake breathed a sigh of relief before wincing in pain.

"My chest really hurts," he replied, "and it's getting hard to breathe," Jake started to cough and then made a sounds as if he were choking.

"His lungs are filling with fluid!" Neil exclaimed, he turned to the teenagers, "do any of you have a pocket knife or anything?" he asked, they all looked around at each other before five of them reached into their pockets and held out knives to him, "I'm not even going to ask why so many of you have knives," he muttered, taking the sharpest one "what about a first aid kit, and alcohol?" 

"I've got a first aid kit in the trunk of my car," one of the girls, Kirsty, replied rushing to her car. One of the boys, Connor, pulled a bottle of vodka out of his bag.

"We were going to set up some tents and camp out and have a few drinks so I bought this along," he said.

"Well it's a good thing you did," Neil replied, taking the bottle.

"He's not breathing," Claire suddenly said, starting CPR on the teen. Neil hurried over and covered the knife in vodka, Kirsty got back with the first aid kit and handed it over to Neil. he pulled the gloves out of it and put them on, he then grabbed a pen out of his pocket and took it apart until he had a hollow tube which he then covered in alcohol. Claire moved away from the patient as Neil carefully cut into his side, he then placed the tube into the cut and fluid poured out of it. The boy started to breathe again and everybody sighed in relief.

Not long after, they heard the whirr of helicopter blades and looked up to see one flying past. all of the teenagers looked up and started to wave at it. 

"Why's it flying past us?" Declan asked.

"It's just finding somewhere to land," Claire replied. Soon enough there were paramedics heading over to them.

Claire and Neil had gone in the helicopter with the patient so when they landed they gave all the information they could to the doctors at the hospital.

"Did you say you were a cardiothoracic surgeon?" a nurse asked Neil.

"Yes I am," he replied.

"Our on call surgeon is in on a different surgery, do you think you could scrub in on this?" she asked.

"Of course," he answered, "I'd like to have Claire assist me if that's alright, she knows the way I work," he said.

"The more the merrier," the nurse replied, showing them to the OR.

Hours later, Jake was out of surgery and in recovery. Claire and Neil went to get changed out of the scrubs they had borrowed before heading out of the hospital. They didn't make it out of the door though as they were stopped by the group of teenagers from before.

"Hey, we just wanted to thank you both," Charlie said them, "we all chipped in to get you some stuff to say thanks," he handed them a fairly expensive bottle of scotch and a box of chocolate, "My brother's 21 so he bought the scotch, just so you don't think anything illegal happened."

"You didn't have to get us anything," Claire said, "we were just doing our jobs," the teens insisted and the surgeons gratefully took the gifts.

"A nurse just told us that Jake's awake if you wanted to go see him, they wont let us in yet but I'm sure they'd let you two," Duncan told them.

"I guess we could do that," Neil replied. They headed to his room where a nurse let them in. Jake was laying on the bed with wires coming off of him, he opened his eyes when he heard the door and smiled at the two doctors.

"Hey, you're the people who helped me in the woods," he said.

"That's us," Neil replied, "we've just come to check how you were doing."

"Sore," he said back, "but alive."

"I bet you'll think twice next time you go to climb a tree," Claire laughed.

"Definitely," he chuckled, "I only did it to impress one of the girls."

"Well, I'm sure she'd have liked you even if you didn't climb a massive tree," Claire replied.

"Maybe," he sighed, "do you think the nurses will let some of my friends come in here?"

"We'll go talk to them," Neil replied before leaving the room. They went to the nurses station and spoke to one of them, who agreed to let a few of his friends in, before they went to leave the hospital.

"This has definitely been an interesting holiday," Claire said.

"It has," Neil agreed, "it's a good thing we still have a few more days of it," he smiled to her, taking her hand in his to head back to the log cabin.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to leave a suggestion for O!


End file.
